Multi-indorsement-restricting device for voting-machines.



C. U. ABBOTT.

MULTI-INDOESEMENT RESTEIGTING DEVICE FOR VOTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1, 1911.

1,054,074. 1 Patented Feb. 25, 191:3.

P79. 7 A} as F/ 9 2 26 P79. 3 59.4

. WITNESSES. A INVENTOH 5y 9' 7/ Wwm ATTORNEY a I UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE.

enemies .c. ABBOTT, or PIT'ISFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T TRIUMPH.

vornve MACHINE COMPANY, onrrrrsrrnnn, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION Toall whom it mayconcem:

- For example, a plurality of oficers are to be I voter may cast onevote for the nominees of OF NEW JERSEY.

MULTI-INDORSEMENT-RESTRIOTTNG DEVICE FOR VOTINGrMACHINES."

Be it known that 1, CHARLES C. ABBOTT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Pittsfield, county of Berkshire,- State of Massachusetts,have invented an Improvement in Multi IndorsemeneRestricting Devices forVoting-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This inventionv has for its object to provide an attachment forvotingumachines, which may be readily applied and removed, for thepurpose of preventing more than one vote being cast for a candidatewhose name appears on a plurality of party tickets.

The present inventidn is limited in its use to a condition inmulticahdidate group voting in which the same person has been nominatedor indorsed for an office in a group by two or more parties and his nameappears on a plurality of party tickets. The te'rm group voting is usedin its ordinary sense.

elected by a plurality of parties, each of which nominates one or morecandidates. A

one party or may cast one vote for a nominee of a plurality of partieso-r may otherwise split up his vote but can only cast as many votes asthere are offices to be filled.

The object, in brief, of the present invention is to render itimpossible to cast a plurality of votes for one candidate, no matter byhow many parties that candidate may have been nominated or indorsed.

In the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, Figure1 is a detail sectional view of a portion of a voting machine, showingcounters and my novel restricting mechanism in side elevation; Fig. 2 asection on the line '2-2 in Fig. 1, looking in the direction of thearrows, the parts being in the normal or inoperative position; Fig. 3 asimilar view showing the position of the parts when a voting membershaft (the second. from the top) has been operated;Fig. l an elevationas seen from the right in Fig. 3; Figs. 5 and 6 are sections, on anenlarged scale, on the lines 5-5 and 66 in Fig. 2, looking in thedirection of Specification of Letters Patent.

the arrows; Fig. 7 anelevation of a short Patented ab. 2.5, 1913'.

Application filed November 1, 1sli'rtseriai-m. 657,924.-

end section as seen in Fig. 1, detached; Fig. 7 an inverted plan Viewcorresponding with Fig. 7; and Figs. 8 and 9 are elevations of one ofthe sections from opposite-points of View.

y I have illustrated'the invention as applied to a horizontal, machine,so called; that is, a machine in which the names ofthe candidates oftheparties are placed in horizontal lines, the names of i the difi'erentcandidates for each oiiice beingin vertical columns. The principle ofthe invention, however, is equally applicable to. vertical machines, socalled, in which the names of the. candidates of the parties are placedin vertical columns, the names of the candidates for each .ofiice beingin horizontal lines.

10 denotes the framework, .11 shafts of voting members, 12the operatinglevers, 13

counters and l t-counter dogs alhof which parts may be of any ordinaryorpref erred construction.

My novel multi-indorsement restricting device consists of a strip madeup of a;

plurality of sections 15 adapted for use iii" connection with a columnofvoting members and a plurality of locking dogs 16 which are removablyattached to the inner ends of the voting member shafts and are retainedin position thereon by strip sections lying on, opposite sides of thelocking dogs. The strip sections are made longer than the distancebet-ween two oi the voting member shafts and are provided near theirends with elongated openings 17 through which the shafts pass freely. Ateach end of each section on its inner face is a cross piece 18, the endsof which are bent upward and inward to form undercut ways 19. The sidesof the sections are beveled backward and inward vfrom their inner facesas at- 20, the beveled edges of each section sliding freely in the waysof other sections. in order to make the'sections readily separable fromeach other, the bcvels are ,cut away on both sides for a short distanceat their midlength, as at 21, so that. when two engageill sections aremoved inward longitudinally the ways will slide along'the bevels until.the cut-away portions are reached, when'the sections may be r *adilyseparated from each the assemblage, the upper cross pieces of the otheras the inner ends f the ways will pass freely over the cut-awayportions, but when the sections are moved outward longitudinally thewayswill ride over the bevels and thus lock the two sections againstseparation except in the manner just described. Each cross piece has atits mid-length a lag AiZf preferably formed by striking the metalinward, which is adapted to engage a longitudinal slot 23 in anothersection, there being a lug at eaoh'end of each section and two slots ineach section adapted to be en gaged by the lugs of the contiguoussections. It will of course be obvious that in case the separablefeature of the sections is not required, cut-away portions 21 areomitted and the sections when once secured together re main so, thelimit of longitudinal movement being determined by the engagement of thelugs with the ends of the slots.

The locking dogs 16 are simply elongated plates of metal, rounded at theends for smoothness in operation and are each provided with anon-circular central opening 24 which receives a voting member shaftfreely but prevents rotation of the locking dog thereon. The shafts areshown as grooved on opposite sides and the openings 2a in the lockingdogs as corresponding therewith. The locking dogs are free to slide onthe shafts and in assembling are placed between two sections of themultiindorsement strip. As'it is necessary to have a strip section oneach side of each locking dog and as it is frequently not desirable tohave the upper section project' very far above the section below it orthe lower section extend downward very much below the section above it,I provide short sections 25 which may or may not be used, as preferred,at either or both ends of a multi-indorsement strip. These shortsections are identical with the ends of sections 15, in fact two shortsections may be n- .do by cutting out the mid-length of a section 15 forapproximately the length of cut-away portion 21. in order to retain ashort section in engagement with the contiguous section 15, the upperend of the'short section is bentinward as at 26, said bent end beingadapted to engage the end of the section-15 and prevent the shortsection from sliding inward on the section 15 enenough to permit theways to pass of? from the bevels and into alinement with the cut-awayportions at the sides. Disengagement by outward movement is of courseprevented by engagement of the lug :22 on the short section with theupper end of the upper slot 23 in the section 15.

When a column of suspended. shafts of sections resting upon the lockingdogs which are now lying horizontally or approximately so. l 'i hen anintermediate voting member is not included in an assemblage, no lockingdog is placed on the shaft thereof and the section below is suspendedthrough the engagement of the upper lug on the lower section with thelower end of the lower slot in the section above it, said slot being inpractice approximately in alinement with the edge of a locking dog inthe horizontal position. The locking dogs and strip sections areretained loosely upon the voting member shafts in any suitable manner,as by cotter pins 27. The sections are interchangeable and the entirestructure when assembled is of very loose construction but forms apositive look when a voting member is operated and the locking dogthereon is turned to the vertical, or approximately vertical, position.

The operation is as follows: In Fig. 1 I have illustrated a condition inwhich a candidate has been nominated 0r indorsed by the first, secondand fourth parties but not by the third and fifth parties, and anothercandidate has been nominated or indorsed by the third and fifth partiesbut not by the first, second and fourth. This condition requires the useof two of my novel multiindorsement strips. The nomination by the first,second and fourth parties is provided for by the strip toward the leftin Fig. 1, and the nomination by the third and fifth parties by thestrip toward the right, the parties being numbered from the topdownward. In any assemblage of voting members pertaining to a singlecandidate, it is required that a locking dog he placed upon the shaft ofeach voting member included in the assemblage and that strip sectionsenough be used to provide a section on each side of each locking dog.Thus in the strip to provide for the first, second and fourth lines,locking dogs are placed on the first, second and fourth voting membershafts and preferably four sections 1.5 are. used and one short section25 at the top, although if preferred three sections l5 may be used and ashort section 25 at each end of the strip. It is wholly immaterial sofar as the intermediate party lines are concerned whether long or shortsections are used at the ends of a strip. At the upper and lower ends ofa full-length strip, however, which might include nine or even moreparty lines, it would be preferable to use short sections, as longsect-ions might interfere with other mechanism of the machine. Inpractice I provide a limited number of short sections, which may besecured to sections 15 by bending their outer ends inward, as in F l andl, so that they can not he slid inward longitudinally far enough to bedetached,

and provide enough sections '15 to meet any possible requirements ofuse. Thus at the lower end of the strip toward the left in Fig. 1 I haveshown a section 15 although a short section 25 would serve the purposejust as well on the fourth voting member shaft. It will be noted that asthe third voting member is not included in this. assemblage, no lockingdog is placed upon the shaft of this member. In the other assembla'ge,which includes the third and fifth voting members, keys are placed uponthe third and fifth voting member shafts but no locking dog is placedupon the fourth voting member shaft. For this strip, four sections arerequired. The two intermediate sections must be sections 15, i. e. fullsections, and the two end sections may be either full sections or shortsections, as preferred.

In Figs. 1 and 2, the voting members and keys are all shown in theunvoted position. In Figs. 3 and 4, I have illustrated a condition inwhich the second voting member has been turned to the voted position;that is, the shaft has been given a quarter turn, more or less, and thelocking dog has been turned from its transverse or normal position to avertical, or approximately vertical, position and is in engagement withthe upper cross piece, of the section depending below said shaft, havingdrawn said section upward, and said section through the engagement withthe lower slot 23 therein of the upper lug 22 on the section belowhavingdrawn the section below upward also. The operation of any voting memberincluded in an assemblage, socalled, (meaning the voting memberspertaining to any-single candidate) and the consequent raising bymeansof the looking .dog thereon of the section depending therefrom and allsections in that strip below it, acts to look all the other votingmembers in that assemblage against operation until the operated votingmember has either been unvoted, z'. 6., returned to its normal position,or the machine has been set up for thenext voter. The amount oflongitudinal movement of the sections permitted by lugs 22 and slots23is enough to permit one lookingdog only'in an assemblage to be turnedto the vertical position. The keys above an operated locking dog willclosely engage the upper cross pieces of sections, which'cannot moveupward, and the keys below the op erated locking dog will closely engagethe lower cross pieces of sections, which cannot move downward, thuslooking all the sections against movement and consequently locking allvoting members in the assemblage, that is all voting members in thatcolumn upon whose shafts keys have been placed. This will readily beunderstood from Figs. 4,'in which it will be seen that the first votingmember is locked against operation by the engagement of the locking dogthereon with the upper cross piece of the upper section 15, and thefourth voting member is locked against operation by the engagement ofthe locking dog thereon with the lower cross pieceof the third section15.

It will be obvious that the principle of operation as described may beadapted to any possible combination of multi-indorsements in groupvoting and with any number of party lines within the limit of themachine,

included in an assemblage and to connect up each assemblage by amulti-indorsement strip in the manner described, using sections enoughto provide a section on each side of each locking dog, shprt sectionsbeing used upon the upper and lower lines of the machine and optionallyupon any intermediate line that may be the first or last line of anassemblage.

Having thus described my invention I claim:

1. A muti-indorsement restricting device comprising lockingdogs, and astrip consisting of sliding sections adapted to lie on opposite sides ofthe locking dogs, each section being provided with means adapted to beengaged by a locking dog to lock all sections in the strip againstlongitudinal movement.

2. A multi-indorsement restricting device comprising locking dogs, and astrip consisting of sections having limited longitudinal movement andadapted to receive the looking dogs between them, each section beingprovided with cross pieces adapted to cooperate with the locking dogs tolock both sections and locking dogs for the purpose set forth, when alocking dog is operated.

3. A multi-indorsement restricting device consist-ing of locking dogs,and a strip comprising sections adapted to receive the looking dogsbetween them, each section having longitudinal slots, cross pieceswhose.ends form ways in which contiguous sections slide and lugs adaptedtoengage the slots in contiguous sections.

4. A multi-indorsement restricting device consisting of locking dogs,and a strip comprising sections adapted to receive the looking dogsbetween them, each section having longitudinal slots, cross pieces whoseends are bent' upward and inward to form waysin which contiguoussections slide and lugs adapted to engage the slots in contiguoussections, for the purpose set forth, each section having at itsmid-length cut-away portions through which the waysmay pass to detachthe sections from each other.

5. A multi-indorsement restricting devicecomprising locking dogs and astrip consisting of sections having limited longitudinal movement andadapted to receive the locking dogs between them, each section beingprovided with cross pieces adapted to be it being simply necessary toplace a locking dog upon the shaft of each voting member.

engaged by an operated locking dog to raise the sections below saidoperated locking dog, whereby all sections will be locked and the crosspieces Will lock the locking dogs.

6. The combination with voting member shafts and locking (logs carriedthereby, of a strip consisting of sliding sections having cross pieceswhich are adapted to be'engaged by the locking dogs. I

The combination With voting member shafts and locking dogs carriedthereby, of a strip consisting of sliding sections having means forengagement by the locking dogs and means for connecting the sectionsleaving them free to slide longitudinally.

8. The combination With voting member shafts and locking dogs carriedthereby, of strip consisting of sliding sections having means forengagement by the locking do s, means for connecting the sectionstogether leaving them detachable when moved #inword, and means forlimiting the outward movement or" the sections.

9. The combination with voting member shafts and locking dog carriedthereby, of a strip consisting sliding sections having cross pieceswhich areadapted to be engaged by the locking dogs, for the purpose setforth, and Whose ends form Ways in which the contiguous sections slide.

10. The combination with voting member shafts and locking dogs carriedthereby, of a strip consisting of sliding sections having cross pieceswhich are engaged by the locking dogs and Whose ends form Ways for thecontiguous sections, each section having openings for voting membershafts and longitudinal slots, and lugs adapted to engage the slots ofcontigmons sections, for the purpose set forth.

11. The combination with voting member shafts and locking dogs carriedthereby, oi a strip consisting of sliding sections having cross pieceswhich are engaged by the locking dogs and "-f-fllRJSS ends form Ways andbevels on the sections which engage the Ways of contiguous: sections andare cut away at the center to permit disengagement of the sections whenmoved inward.

12. The comlnnation with voting member shafts and locking dogs carriedthereby, of a strip consisting of ing cross pieces which by the lockingdogs and ends form Ways,

1 ,"fl 1 x l v T" beveis on the sections which engage the ways ofcontiguous sections and are cut away at center to permit "sengagement ofthe sections when moved and lug slot coiniectio between the sections,for purpos t sliding sections have eeann 14. A multi-indorsement stripcomprising sliding sections havinglongitudinal slots, cross pieces attheir ends bent to form Ways for contiguous sections and lugs projectingfrom the cross pieces and engaging longitudinal slots in contiguoussections, for the purpose set forth.

15. A multi-indorsement strip comprising sliding sections havinglongitudinal slots and bevhls, said bevels being cut away at theirmid-length, cross pieces at the ends of the sections bent to form Waysfor contiguous sections and lugs projecting from the cross pieces andengaging the longitudinal slots in 'contiguous' sections to limit theiroutward movement, said sections being separable When moved inward toplace the Ways in alineinent with cut-away portions of thebevels.

16. In a voting machine, the combination with voting member shafts andlocking dogs carried'thereby and having the same move ments as theshafts, of means for preventing the casting oi more than one vote for acandidate Whose name appears on a plurality of tickets.

17. In voting machine, the combination with rotatory voting members andlocking dogs detachably secured thereto and having the same movements,of means engaged by said dogs for preventing the casting of more thanone vote for a candidate Whose name appears on a plurality of tickets.

18. In a voting machine, the combination with oscillatory voting membersand the locking dogs carried thereby, of a strip made up of slidingsections, and means on the sections adapted to be engaged by the lockingdogs, whereby When a section is operated all other voting membersprovided with looking dogs are locked against opera tion.

in a voting machine, the combination with voting members arran ed in amulticandidate group, of a strip made up of sec tions and operatingconnections intermedi ate the voting members and the sections, wherebywhen a section is operated the voting members having the intermediateconnections areloclted, leaving voting membeis Without intermediateconnections unlocked.

20. in voting machine, the combination ivitl voting member shaftsarranged in a multicandidate group, of a strip comprising sectionshaving lug and slot connections in! means operated by the voting membersl ts. whereby the sections below an open at voting member Wlll be drawniipwai'd lot all other voting members in the as- D against operation.

machine, the combination shafts, of a strip coinons l'iaving cro piecesin the lit? member shaft-s to engage the cross pieces and thereby lockthe other members in the assemblage against operation.

In a votingmachine, the combination with voting members and locking dogshaving oppositely extending engaging ends and adapted to detachablyengage the voting members, of :1V strip comprising sliding sectionsthrough Which the voting members 10 pass and Which are provided Withcross pieces, upper and lower cross pieces of contiguous sections beingengaged by the opposite ends of an operated locking dog.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

CHARLES C. ABBOTT.

Witnesses:

LESTER SHEPARDSON, EDMUND A. HAsKINs.

